Abstract
An extensive focus on written language in early literacy instruction and assessment for emergent bilinguals places students at a disadvantage since they are learning English as a new language. Typically, classroom instruction has a narrow view of literacy and is dominated by a focus on tested skills, with little emphasis on the diverse backgrounds and experiences of today’s students. In order to value the rich meaning-making process that emergent bilinguals bring with them to the classroom, this article explores the ways in which technology affords multimodal composing opportunities. A case of one emergent bilingual, Alon, whose home language is Tagalog, is presented to showcase his text productions as responses to children’s literature. The findings help extend an understanding of articulating meaning through talk, contributions of written language, and the importance of the visual mode. This case helps educators see the need to take into account a cohesive portrait of composing processes as a way to make sense of the strengths of emergent bilingual students in English-only classrooms.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Axelrod, Y. (2014). ‘¿Tu te acuerdas de ganchulinas?’: Longitudinal research with young emergent bilinguals. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 15(2), 94–108.
Barone, D., & Barone, R. (2017). Rethinking reader response with fifth graders’ semiotic interpretations. The Reading Teacher. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1563.
Baroutsis, A., Kervin, L., Woods, A., & Comber, B. (2019). Understanding children’s perspectives of classroom writing practices through drawing. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 20(2), 177–193.
Bauer, E. B., Presiado, V., & Colomer, S. (2017). Writing through partnership: Fostering translanguaging in children who are emergent bilinguals. Journal of Literacy Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X16683417.
Bearne, E. (2009). Multimodality, literacy, and texts: Developing a discourse. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 9(2), 156–187.
Bentley, D., & Souto-Manning, M. (2019). PreK stories: Playing with authorship and integrating curriculum in early childhood. New York: Teachers College Press.
Clanton, B. (2016). It came in the mail. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Clay, M., Gill, M., Glynn, T., McNaughton, T., & Salmon, K. (2015). Record of oral language: Observing changes in the acquisition of language structures. Australia: Scholastic Australia.
Coates, E., & Coates, A. (2006). Young children talking and drawing. International Journal of Early Years Education, 14(3), 221–241.
Dagenais, D., Toohey, K., Bennett Fox, A., & Singh, A. (2017). Multilingual and multimodal composition at school: ScribJab in action. Language and Education, 31(3), 263–282.
Dean, J. (2012). Pete the cat saves Christmas. New York: Harper Collins.
Dyson, A., & Genishi, C. (2005). On the case: Approaches to language and literacy research. New York: Teachers College Press.
Dyson, A. H. (2018). From superman play to singing the blues: On the trail of child writing and popular culture. Language Arts, 96(1), 37–46.
Flewitt, R. (2011). Bringing ethnography to a multimodal investigation of early literacy in the digital age. Qualitative Research, 11(3), 293–310.
García, O., & Kleifgen, J. (2018). Educating emergent bilinguals: Policies, programs, and practices for English language learners (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.
Genishi, C., & Dyson, A. (1984). Language assessment in the early years. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Gort, M. (2019). Developing bilingualism and biliteracy in early and middle childhood. Language Arts, 96(4), 229–243.
Hopewell, S., & Escamilla, K. (2014). Struggling reader or emergent biliterate student? Reevaluating the criteria for labeling emergent bilingual students as low achieving. Journal of Literacy Research, 46(1), 68–89.
Jewitt, C., Bezemer, J., & O’Halloran, K. (2016). Introducing multimodality. New York: Routledge.
Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2012). Literacies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Krashen, S. (2003). Explorations of language acquisition and use. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Kress, G. (2011). “Partnerships in research”: Multimodality and ethnography. Qualitative Research, 11(3), 239–260.
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. New York: Routledge.
Kress, G. (1997). Before Writing: Rethinking the paths to literacy. London: Routledge.
Kress, G. R., & Bezemer, J. (2016). Multimodality, learning and communication: A social semiotic frame. New York: Routledge.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Kuby, C., & Rucker, T. (2016). Go be a writer! Expanding the curricular boundaries of literacy learning with children. New York: Teachers College Press.
Lantolf, J. (2000). Introducing sociocultural theory. In J. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 1–26). New York: Oxford University Press.
Li, W. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 9–30.
Lindfors, J. (1991). Children’s language and learning (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Lotherington, H. (2011). Pedagogy of multiliteracies: Rewriting Goldilocks. New York: Routledge.
Mavers, D. (2011). Children’s drawing and writing: The remarkable in the unremarkable. New York: Routledge.
Mills, K. (2016). Literacy theories for the digital age: Social, critical, multimodal, spatial, material and sensory lenses. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Mills, K., & Unsworth, L. (2018). iPad animations: powerful multimodal practices for adolescent literacy and emotional language. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(6), 609–620.
Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K. (2015). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0528-y.
Pahl, K. (2009). Interactions, intersections and improvisations: Studying the multimodal texts and classroom talk of six-to seven-year-olds. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 9(2), 188–210.
Pahl, K., & Rowsell, J. (2012). Literacy and education (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
Pantaleo, S. (2012). Meaning-making with colour in multimodal texts: An 11-year-old student's purposeful 'doing'. Literacy., 46, 147–155. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-4369.2012.00664.x.
Pérez, B. (2004). Language, literacy, and biliteracy. In B. Pérez (Ed.), Sociocultural contexts of language and literacy (2nd ed., pp. 24–56). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Rowe, D. (2012). Recent trends in research on young children’s authoring. In J. Larson & J. Marsh (Eds.), The sage handbook of early childhood literacy (2nd ed., pp. 423–447). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rowe, D. (2018). The unrealized promise of emergent writing: Reimagining the way forward for early writing instruction. Language Arts, 95(4), 229–241.
Rowe, D. W., & Miller, M. E. (2016). Designing for diverse classrooms: Using iPads and digital cameras to compose eBooks with emergent bilingual/biliterate four-year-olds. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798415593622.
Rowsell, J., & Harwood, D. (2015). “Let it go”: Exploring the image of the child as a producer, consumer, and inventor. Theory into Practice, 54(2), 136–146.
Sakr, M., Connelly, V., & Wild, M. (2016). “Evil cats” and “jelly floods”: Young children’s collective constructions of digital art making in the early years classroom. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 30(1), 128–141.
Sefton-Green, J., Marsh, J., Erstad, O., & Flewitt, R. (2016). Establishing a research agenda for the digital literacy practices of young children: A white paper for COST Action IS1410. Retrieved from https://digilitey.eu.
Soltero-González, L., & Reyes, I. (2012). Literacy practices and language use among Latino emergent bilingual children in preschool contexts. In E. Bauer & M. Gort (Eds.), Early biliteracy development: Exploring young learners’ use of their linguistic resources (pp. 34–54). New York: Routledge.
Souto-Manning, M., & Martell, J. (2016). Reading, writing, and talk: Inclusive teaching strategies for diverse learners, K-2. New York: Teachers College Press.
Shanahan, L. E. (2013). Composing “kid-friendly” multimodal text: When conversations, instruction, and signs come together. Written Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088313480328.
Spradley, J. (1980). Participant observation. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement: GA School Grade Reports. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://schoolgrades.georgia.gov/.
van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Introducing social semiotics. New York: Routledge.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wiesner, D. (2010). Art and Max. New York: Clarion Books.
Williams, C., & Lowrance-Faulhaber, E. (2018). Writing in young bilingual children: A review of research. Journal of Second Language Writing, 42, 58–69.
Wong Fillmore, L. (1991). Second-language learning in children: A model of language learning in context. In E. Bialystok (Ed.), Language processing in bilingual children (pp. 49–69). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Zapata, A., & Van Horn, S. (2017). “Because I’m smooth”: Material intra-action and text productions among young Latino picture book makers. Research in the Teaching of English, 51(5), 290–315.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge funding from the Georgia Southern University College of Education Faculty Seed Grant.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brown, S., Allmond, A. Constructing My World: A Case Study Examining Emergent Bilingual Multimodal Composing Practices. Early Childhood Educ J 49, 209–221 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01062-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01062-4